Engine build at factory

Interesting watch!

No offense but this video is 5 years old and has been posted every everywhere

No offense but this video is 5 years old and has been posted every everywhere

Then don't watch it again.

Still a very cool video. I could watch this kind of stuff all day.

Great post! Fascinating!

Thanks for posting DR. Hadn't seen it before. Very cool. I was surprised at the low noise level. My experience in an Auto assembly plant back in the day was much louder. All fastening was done with air drivers which weren't very accurate and loud. Of course, that was a long time ago.

Watched the

I've taken a tour of the BMW factory in Spandau, Berlin a couple of times. The most recent was two or three years ago and it looked very similar to the video. It had changed a lot from the first time I toured maybe 15 years ago. During the first tour, it was automated but nowhere near to the extent that it is now. I remember one of the assemblers was smoking as he glued two halves of an engine case together. I wondered at the time how often the ash from his cigarette ended up in an engine.

On the more recent visit, they made a very big point of how much effort goes into making the assembly process ergonomically healthy for the people on the assembly line. You can see it in the video. Everything is at the correct height, there is no bending or lifting, there are not a lot of short repeated movements. No smoking is allowed on the line anymore, there are glass cages scattered around for smoke breaks. There was also a lot of discussion about the interaction between the BMW factory and the companies that make parts for them. They have staff visit and work with the other companies designing the assembly lines and tools at those companies as well.

I will be in Berlin in a few weeks and I am going to schedule another tour. My daughter lives a couple of kilometers from the factory. I just checked and it is actually about 9 km from the factory, still pretty convenient. I just sent them a request for a tour again.

very cool.. I learned to rebuild engines in my dad's GM dealership a few decades ago ... a couple of observations that were different in modern versus how we did it....these engines seem to be put together dry. When we were rebuilding we would put a very very thin layer of STP on all gears, shafts, etc to help on first start. After about the first 30 minutes of running, we would change the oil again to get the thickness of the STP out of the system and any metal in may have produced would suspend itself if the STP. Seemed to work. More amazing than the assembly on this video is the smart people who designed those machines and programs.

No offense but this video is 5 years old and has been posted every everywhere

:S

NO OFFENSE (YES CAPS BAN ME)

Sir,

Dirtrider has posted hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars of real time advice on this site.

He has my respect and admiration wrt knowledge of BMW's and willingness to clearly and extensively share this knowledge.

If he wants to post a video of his bike getting washed (the correct way), or

ANYTHING to do with BMW motorcycles, he can do so without bs from us, IMO.

Of course he handled this much better than I did...

No offense but this video is 5 years old and has been posted every everywhere

:S

 

NO OFFENSE (YES CAPS BAN ME)

 

Sir,

 

Dirtrider has posted hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars of real time advice on this site.

He has my respect and admiration wrt knowledge of BMW's and willingness to clearly and extensively share this knowledge.

 

If he wants to post a video of his bike getting washed (the correct way), or

ANYTHING to do with BMW motorcycles, he can do so without bs from us, IMO.

 

Of course he handled this much better than I did...

I was thinking the same thing, you did just fine.

Glad you posted this DR, I hadn't seen the one with the new water head.

Thanks

DR has a video of how to wash a bike? If he does I would like to see it as he has saved me ton's of angst and money...I'm sure if he had one, I would learn from it. Atta boy Tallman...needed to be said.

Interesting watch!

 

Evening DR,

I had no idea of the precision of the steps and tooling.

Even more of a surprise was how much hand labor there is in an engine assembly.

Thanks.

I certainly agree. D.R. is a treasure for sure.

Interesting video...and no, I have never seen it before so thanks for sharing.

The assembly appears deceivingly simple with all the specialized tooling, jigs and the like. You might not be able to include the audio track while taking a video of me doing this in my garage...at least not with innocent children in the room.

Please Please forgive me for making this unforgivable comment to one of the Gods of the forum . LMAO

I've seen this several times and it is still interesting to watch.

Please Please forgive me for making this unforgivable comment to one of the Gods of the forum . LMAO

Maybe you should practice if you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut?

As said, if you don't want to watch it, don't. I know hard to believe but you are not the only person on this Forum.

Just got around to watching this and found it very impressive. Over the years I've rebuilt many VW and Porsche 4 and 6 cyl engines but this makes me feel like I did it in the dark ages. Very cool, thanks for posting it.

I'm sorry. I did not think I said anything offensive and meant no offense. I was just surprised at how upset people got over the comment. I just mentioned that the video was old. I'm sure the nice gentleman who posted it isn't loosing any sleep about it . It was just a comment . AGAIN I apologize . Lets get back to the topic :-)

The capitol needed to tool up a shop like this must be huge and does shed some light on the cost to run a business like this to say nothing of all the other costs involved like engineering, transportation, warranty, and so on...and on.. Kind of makes one appreciate why modern motorcycles cost what they do. Makes my head hurt.

The capitol needed to tool up a shop like this must be huge and does shed some light on the cost to run a business like this to say nothing of all the other costs involved like engineering, transportation, warranty, and so on...and on.. Kind of makes one appreciate why modern motorcycles cost what they do. Makes my head hurt.

Yep, sales volume matters a lot; it dictates how much R&D you can do, and how much you can spend to automate manufacturing. BMW sold 13,546 motorcycles in the US last year. That's for ALL its models, not just the GS. Harley Davidson sold 147,972 motorcycles. Again, all models. I'll wager their manufacturing processes are even more automated than BMW's.

Just to put things in perspective, consider the Honda Civic, which costs only a couple thousand more than the R1200GS:

Honda sold 377,286 Civics in the US last year. If you look at all their models, the grand total is 1,486,827.

OK, here we have a chance to take a look at how this forum works and is supposed to work. Administrators on this board are not keen to jump in and "fix" things unless they are flagrant. In milder cases such as this thread, the membership engages in "self moderating" and brings things back to a civil level. The written word is monochromatic and lacks the tone, inflection, body and facial language that give communication the full scope of colors and makes it more complete. It's easy to misunderstand intent. And it takes adults to correct those misunderstandings among themselves.

1. First, thank you D.R. for the link.

2. The reply he got began with "No offense" (intended). Therefore he knew his comment might be interpreted as edgy, but he wanted D.R. and others to know that he meant to inform, not insult.

3. Some people got offended that the reply in any way might have stepped on D.R.'s toes. And while it might, he knows how much he's contributed here and how he's perceived by all of us. Thus, his reply was direct and straightforward.

4. Some of the secondary replies were certainly edgy, and without disclaimer, thus escalating the conversation.

5. This ignited a sarcastic response which, while we hope it hadn't happened, was not without a trigger or two.

6. And that fostered a basic STHU reply, with its own sarcastic tone.

7. Ultimately, though probably not needed based on the first response, that initial responder took the role of peacemaker and stepped up and apologized (twice) for engaging in the inflammation, and encouraged everyone to get back to the topic. Kudos. Would that others would do likewise and bring total harmony back to this thread.

from the looks of things, there might be 20 people in the whole factory (all kept in check by a small army of very expensive robots).

Those painting robots look seriously spooky. Looking at them for more than five seconds would give me nightmares...

I'm sorry. I did not think I said anything offensive and meant no offense. I was just surprised at how upset people got over the comment. I just mentioned that the video was old. I'm sure the nice gentleman who posted it isn't loosing any sleep about it . It was just a comment . AGAIN I apologize . Lets get back to the topic :-)

No worries. I am sorry for blowing up about it.

"These are the times that try men's souls." — Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.

Too many people have become too sensitive about too many things. At times I despair that we will ever return to a civil society.

Thanks to EffBee for stepping in with a sensible analysis.

Back to regularly scheduled programming....

Thank goodness for the EffBees of the world.

Thank goodness for the members here. There are and always will be times a statement gets twisted a bit. Maybe comes out different than intended. Or read a bit different than intended.

The difference here is that this didn't get out of control. I cannot tell in words how much respect I have for the members and especially those in charge of this forum. I have to be on several forums daily as it is business related. This one is truly different and by far the best run of them all.

I can always come here and know it is about riding sport touring bikes and what it takes to get them from A to B.

That is what friends are for!

I still would like to know more about the process for selecting the cam shims!

Interesting... Lately i have been dwelling on the difference between Intent and Perception in inter-personal relations. (This thread has helped me clarify some things about that)

Intent is what i meant to say or do. Driven by my own thought processes, experiences, morals, and other filters that shape my view of things.

Perception is what others think of my statement or actions in light of their own thought processes, experiences, morals, and other filters that shape their view of things.

Where i often go wrong is in responding to my Perception of an event without first trying to understand the Intent of it.

Understanding the Intent first should factor into my Perception and therefore temper my response.

BTW - It is an impressive video, i love seeing how things are made.